Political spin disease

by Peter Espeut

Two days ago, this newspaper published a letter from a reader accusing me of being a spin doctor for the People's National Party (PNP). My many PNP friends, and anyone who has followed my columns over the last two decades, must be in stitches - 'dead wid laugh' (DWL in texting slang).

Frank Beecher writes, "The People's National Party (PNP) has known and successfully practised only one main campaign strategy over the years: demonise and destroy the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and a PNP victory would be assured at the polls. The destructive propaganda campaigns have been successful with the aid of the PNP's strategically placed spin doctors in the media and academia."

Their numbers are shrinking, thank God, but Jamaica suffers from the disease of too many political tribalists like Frank Beecher, who believe that 'if you are not with me, you must be against me'. In my column last week, I had exposed the raw political spin of the current JLP focus on the age of Andrew Holness as his major qualification for the job of prime minister, rather than on his performance, or his stance on important public issues like campaign-finance reform or conservation of the natural environment.

I pointed out that no young leader could rise to the post of party president without the support of the political dinosaurs in his party, and the backing of self-interested party financiers, and that, therefore, nothing new or different should be expected from young Holness. I pointed out that great change agents like F.W. de Klerk and Mikhail Gorbachev began as tribalists, and achieved their greatness by betraying their apartheid and communist backers, respectively, and I stated, "The backers of Holness don't for a moment believe he will betray them!" Because of these observations, Beecher brands me a PNP spin doctor.

I wrote last Friday: "What we suffer from in Jamaica is not so much old, tired politicians but old, tired politics. I will choose - every time - an old politician, tired of the corrupt old politics, ready to engineer a paradigm shift, over a young chip off the old block, steeped in the old politics, prepared to be a bigger tribalist than his elders." Beecher wrote last Wednesday: "Yes, we are tired of the old politics, but unlike Espeut, Jamaicans are simply saying, we are also tired of the old (in age, thoughts, perceptions and practices) politicians who have developed and presided over the system of corruption."

Nationalists, not tribalists

Does Beecher read my columns? There are none so blind as those who will not see. Anyone who is genuinely tired of "politicians who have developed and presided over the system of corruption" must abandon support for both the PNP and the JLP. Jamaica needs more nationalists, not tribalists.

Last week, I wrote, "Over the years, Jamaica has shown that we love political messiahs; the spin doctors are hard at work, converting young Andrew into 'The Hero' which 'The Crowd' can idolise." Beecher took the "the liberty of rephrasing a section of the penultimate paragraph" of my article to read thus: "The spin doctors are hard at work, converting young Andrew into 'The Demon' which 'The Crowd' must not idolise."

Of course, I was drawing a reference to the insightful 1968 study of Caribbean politicians and politics titled 'The Hero and the Crowd in a Colonial Polity' by Archie Singham, of which mindless political tribalists (who make up much of the crowd) are likely to be unaware. Actually, Andrew Holness does not fit Singham's stereotype of the political messiah (being a hard worker in his ministry), but the political spin doctors are working hard to fit him into that mould.

All that I wrote last week concerned the JLP PR campaign and those pulling the strings in the background, not so much about Andrew Holness himself. He could well spring a big surprise on his backers, and change the course of Jamaican history. But there is nothing in his track record to encourage us, and youth by itself is not serious grounds for optimism.

The PNP offers no prospect of a change, of course, and new, young JLP leader Andrew Holness may keep the PNP in the political wilderness for another term, which will cause JLP tribalists to rejoice; but I suspect that those who hope for an end to the old garrison politics will be somewhat disappointed.

Peter Espeut is a rural development sociologist and a natural resource manager. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.